I got up fairly early around 7.30am and had a look at the breakfast at the hostel, but there was none included and the menu prices were around 100 peso. I sent a few Couchsurfer emails so that maybe I could meet up with a guy called Ritchie and then I headed out to look around and there were a lot of churches nearby and everywhere on maps.me so I went and walked past a few but they were closed and none were very nice. I looked in a 7-11 to see if there was any cheap juice or food but it wasn't great although they did sell alcohol and even big bottles of liquor, a big change from Malaysia and Indonesia. I got slightly lost but found my way to a Memorial park which was a walled place with a 10 peso entry I paid and had a little look round. After I left I found a few places to eat nearby and I sat down and had a breakfast combo bbq, which was some meat, vegetable and rice. I took a diagonal road which goes to the main park an when I got there I found that maps.me has listed almost every statue even if its not very important, still it was nice to have things to aim towards and there were a few things in park like a children's playground which looked special but charged for entry and there was a relief map of the Philippines. I went to the Museum of anthropology but it was closed as it was 9am and they open at 10am so I carried on and the Fine art museum was also closed until 10am. Next I came to a monument with some kind of rally in front. I went across the road to a small park where a small gate was clocked for some reason since there were people in the park so I climbed over and looked at the statues and small fountain. I could see a big Clock-tower of the city hall so I went there and inside was strange as it was like a hospital or medical place with lots of people there for subscriptions or something. I tried to go to the top but they were renovating and I saw a women's prison holding cell which you normally don't see so openly. I tried to get to another park by the river afterwards but it was inaccessible and there was a ferry port but when I asked the next ferry boat was in about 80 minutes which is not frequent enough so I carried on and there was a big impressive post office building which was in an art deco style. I walked along river which was not a great walk and went past some people who were living there. Next I came to fort Santiago which looked quite nice so I took some pictures and was about to walk across the bridge into the fort when a security stopped me as apparently I needed a ticket. A lot of waiting later I was escorted back and bought a ticket for 75 pesos as there was still a lot to see of the place according to the map. I Walked around fort where there were lots of tourists and I learned about Jose Rizal, a hero of the country who had been blamed for the revolution and been executed by the Spanish so there was a memorial, some gold footprints and a Museum to Rizal all in the fort. I walked out past the entrance door and then asked for the tourist information office I had been told was near the fort and was told it was inside so I walked back in and picked up a map of the whole Phillipine islands and asked how I would get a boat and the told me the name of a company - travel2go who have an office in the main (Rizal) park. I started heading back and came to the Cathedral, which was pretty nice but had a service on so I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside. I left the cathedral and went round ignoring the tricycle guy and tried to take a photo from the back but a security guard wouldn't let me into an empty car park. I went on and came to another church and monastery called St Augustin which had a UNESCO plaque but the church was closed and so was the museum until 2pm or something. I came to another museum soon after on Chinese people in Manila but it was closed for lunch and also 100 pesos entry so I didn't plan on going back. I headed on to the fine art museum and went round and it had a lot but even their most famous Filipino artist had his best work in Spain not here. There were some decent painting though. I left and went to the Anthropology museum which had a few different exhibitions including rice and ivory trade. After that I went through the park again and ignored the small looking Japanese garden even though it was only 10 pesos. They had an open air amphitheatre which had free shows on Friday and Saturday but after 6pm and the Chinese garden was shut until after the Chinese new year so I couldn't visit that. I found the travel2go shop and went in and the boats only went to a few places and only on certain days of the week so I got some information on that and left. I went back towards the hostel and found a place that did a good rate on my Malaysian Ringgits so I changed them. Then I went to Robinsons supermarket and got some fruit, juice and biscuits and was back at 4.30 and ate at hostel. I discovered I still had bananas from Sagada so now I had lots of bananas. Id also bought a mountain apple which was pretty bitter so I'll be staying away from that in future. I tried to research things but I was tired so had a rest until 6pm. Then I showered and went to Asia mall to look for a bag to replace my old broken one. I walked around the mall which naturally had a security check and spent more time looking at tech things and there were only a couple of stores selling bags and they were a bit expensive. I left and saw that they had the miss world competition coming up here in just a few days time. I headed south towards the airport which was longer than I'd have liked and there was not much on the way and I got to the domestic terminal but they wouldn't let me in and there was no globe stand there anyway for the free sim card. They also wouldn't let me take a shuttle to the other terminal as I had not just arrived and were generally not very helpful so I walked t the next terminal whcih was number 2 and the man on the desk there was much more helpful and I found the Globe desk and got my free sim but I had to top it up still to use - 300 pesos for 7 days of data. I asked back at the desk how to get back and he eventually gave me some bus details although he thought I should get a taxi as its not safe. I walked along the road to where the buses are and I saw someone jump in the back of the long jeep vehicle so I followed him in and it was a tight squeeze but it did take me back to the domestic terminal and a little further which was very helpful and only cost 7 pesos. I walked on to find another one of those or a bus going back to my hostel and there was a market so there were no cars going through there. I had a look as a few stalls had bags and eventually I bought a HP fakeish bag which is designed for laptops, but I was seduced by the fact that it had a rain cover so I haggled them down to 1000 pesos which was more than the fake north dace bags had cost but they had no padding at the back. We shook hands and they looked pretty pleased about the whole thing so maybe I'd overpaid. I walked on to the main road and the big buses didn't stop or go where I wanted so I caught a jeepney and since I knew the price was 7, I paid with 12 so that I didn't have a pocket full of change but he didn't give me back the 5 pesos maybe because he just assumed I'd paid the correct amount. I got back and it was 11.15, I had some drink and did some research into what other tour companies do around the Philippines and decided to go north tomorrow to Banoue. I chatted to Mosha From Morocco about teaching English in various countries and went to bed around 2.30am.
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